In Her Image

On Mother's Day in my congregation, we celebrate Gifts of Women Sunday, giving thanks for ALL women, not just mothers! Today's sermon highlights some of the important women in both Old and New Testaments who were not mothers, but who shared gifts in very important ways. I invite you to give thanks for all the women in your life who have shared their gifts with you!

My granddaughter, Grace, is a budding scholar. That’s not because she knows everything; but because she DOESN’T know everything, and she asks really good questions. She is especially inquisitive about the Bible; and whenever she comes up with a question that her mother can’t answer, she’ll say, “Call Dammaw! She’ll know the answer!” Usually, I do know the answer; but last week, she stumped me. She started with an easy question. She wanted to know who gave birth to the first baby in the Bible. I told her that the first mother was Eve, and that her children were Cain and Abel. But then, she threw me a curve. “So, Dammaw,” she asked, “who had the first girl baby in the Bible?” I have no clue, because the Bible doesn’t record the birth of any girl babies. Of course, she wanted to know why; so I told her that the people who wrote the Bible didn’t think that girls were as important as boys. With every ounce of 6-year-old indignation that she could muster, she announced, “Well, they were wrong!”

Yes, Grace, they were wrong. The first chapter of Genesis (1:26-28a) insists that both women and men were created in God’s image; and women have been every bit as important as men in the biblical drama that has unfolded from creation until now. It’s true that women of the Bible don’t get as much press as the men do; and the ones that do are mothers of famous men. We all know about Sarah, who gave birth to Isaac; or Hannah, who gave birth to Samuel; or Mary, the mother of Jesus. If you search through the Bible, though, you’ll see that women have played a much larger role than just being mothers! Let me give you a few examples.

We don’t have to turn many pages of the Old Testament before we find the first women who defy expectations, refusing to be submissive and do what they are told. In the very first chapter of Exodus, they defy the Pharaoh himself! Shiphrah and Puah are midwives to the Hebrew women, and when the Pharaoh instructs them to kill all the Hebrew baby boys as soon as they are born, they ignore him. When he calls them on the carpet, demanding to know why they aren’t doing what they were told to do, they simply shrug and say, “The Hebrew women give birth too quickly, and we can’t get there fast enough!” It’s the first instance, but not the last, of a woman who refuses to follow unjust orders. Civil disobedience, at least in the Jewish-Christian tradition, began with these two women.

In the very next chapter of Exodus, we find Moses’ sister Miriam. Baby Moses in the bulrushes gets all the press, but it is his sister Miriam who stands guard over him, and then offers to get a nurse for the baby when Pharaoh’s daughter adopts him. The nurse is, of course, Moses’ own mother. Miriam appears again in an even more important role after God parts the Red Sea, allowing the Hebrews to cross safely, and condemning Pharaoh’s army to a watery grave. Exodus 15:20-21 tells us this: Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her, with tambourines and dancing. Miriam sang to them, “Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted! The horse and rider he has hurled into the sea!” In these two short verses, Miriam led the community in worship four thousand years before our controversy over ordaining women, singing and dancing with joy over the salvation that God had given them! Our tradition of community worship began with Miriam.

After the Israelites enter the Promised Land, we meet one of my favorites, Deborah. Her story is told in chapters 4 and 5 of the book of Judges. The Hebrew text calls her an “ishah lappidoth.” Because Hebrew is ambiguous, that can be translated “a woman who comes from Lappidoth,” “the wife of Lappidoth,” or “a fiery woman.” Although this text is traditionally translated “the wife of Lappidoth,” I like “a fiery woman” much better. That is what Deborah was: a fiery woman! She led the Israelites in battle against the Canaanite general Sisera and his nine hundred iron chariots. Even the Israelite general Barak didn’t think that she stood much of a chance; but against all odds, Deborah’s army won the day, and Sisera was defeated. The Song of Deborah, chapter 5 of the book of Judges, tells of her victory! Deborah shows us that women can be military leaders who are just as good as men – and in some cases, even better!

Another one of my favorites is Esther. She has her own book in the Old Testament; and it is richly deserved! It tells of her rise from being only the orphaned daughter of two Israelite refugees to being the Queen of Persia herself. That story is enough of a marvel in itself, but the real marvel is the way that she saved her people from annihilation. When the evil Haman persuades the king to allow him to massacre all the Jews living in Persia, Esther risks her life by going to the king without being summoned and making him aware of the situation. In the end, Haman is the one who is executed, and Esther is honored with a holiday in her honor: Purim. It is a joyous holiday that is still celebrated by Jews today. Esther was a risk-taker who set an example for all of us!

So, is it only in the Old Testament that we find women in roles other than that of “mother”? Oh, my, no! In the New Testament, for example, in Acts 16:13, we meet Lydia. Lydia is introduced to us as “a dealer in purple cloth.” Purple cloth was incredibly expensive, because the dye was only available in very small quantities. Today, Lydia could be compared to a diamond merchant. She had her own business, and she was independently wealthy. So, why was Lydia worthy of being included in the book of Acts? She hosted Paul and his companions in her home in Philippi, and was one of the founders of the church there. She donated out of her wealth to feed and house Paul and his friends, and to get the church there started. She is one of the first philanthropists in the Jewish-Christian tradition.

Shiphrah and Puah, Miriam, Deborah, Esther, and Lydia. All of them are examples of women who reflect the image of God through their lives. And we reflect their images when we live in a way that values love of God and love of others. You all know of women who reflect the lives of these women; but you might never have thought about it in just that way. Here, I’ll show you what I mean.

Rosa Parks reflected the image of Shiphrah and Puah, the midwives who defied Pharaoh. We all know what Rosa Parks did: she defied the law that said Blacks and Whites must be separated in public places. By her civil disobedience on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, she helped to usher in the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.

Phyliss Latour Doyle reflected the image of Esther, the woman who risked her life on behalf of her people. When she was only 23 years old, Phyliss parachuted into Normandy in May, 1944, to gather intelligence about Nazi positions in preparation for D-Day. (Did she make it back out? Oh, my, yes! She recently celebrated her 100^th birthday!)

Harriet Tubman reflected the image of Deborah, the military leader. We all know about her work on the Underground Railroad; but what most of us don’t know is that she organized a vast espionage organization during the Civil War. Based on her information, she helped plan and carry out a raid to free slaves from plantations along the Combahee River in South Carolina in June of 1863. She knew where the Confederates were hiding along the shore; and knew that they had placed torpedoes -- barrels filled with gunpowder -- in the water. Ultimately, her group, several hundred soldiers on three gunboats, freed over 750 slaves, and did not lose one soldier in the attack!

Noella Coursaris Musunka is reflecting the image of Lydia, the philanthropist. She is the founder of Malaika, a non-profit organization that operates a free school for 230 disadvantaged girls in Kalebuka, a village in the Southeastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Noella has committed her life to helping empower a generation of young leaders who want a better future for their country.

And who is reflecting the image of Miriam, the first person to lead community worship? I could point to Antoinette Brown who was ordained in 1852, the first woman to be ordained in the United States (and by the way, a member of a Congregational Church); but I don’t have to go that far back. I am reflecting Miriam’s image right now, and I am proud to be doing it!

And what about all of you? I hope that you, too, reflect the images of these women in large or small ways. I hope that you reflect Shiphrah and Puah and defy unjust authority. I hope that you reflect Esther and risk something on behalf of the greater good. I hope that you reflect Deborah and take action against an unjust system. I hope that you reflect Lydia and give of your time and talents in the name of Jesus Christ. And I hope that you aren’t afraid to reflect Miriam if you are asked to lead a prayer or offer a devotion to a group. When we reflect the images of these women today, we reflect the image of the One who created all of us; the One who calls us to keep the greater good in mind as we live our lives. On this Gifts of Women Sunday, I invite you to reflect on all the women who have influenced your lives for the better as they themselves reflected the lives of the women who have gone before them. And I invite you to thank God for them – not only today, but every day!

Cosmic Resurrection

 This is the season of resurrection! We celebrate the eternal life that we have through Jesus Christ and anticipate our reunion with loved ones who have gone ahead of us into glory. But is resurrection only for us humans? The Bible is concerned not only about us humans, but also about all of creation! On this Sunday following Earth Day, maybe we should take a closer look at that...

Who is resurrection for? I’ll bet that you never even thought about that question. Who is resurrection for? Of course it’s for Christians, we who trust in the grace of God through Jesus Christ and call him “Lord.” Many people believe that the resurrection is for non-Christians, too. They believe that God’s grace is for everyone, whether or not they have ever heard of Jesus. We all agree, though, that the resurrection is for human beings. But… what about animals? Is the resurrection for them, too? Will I see my beloved dogs in the life to come? What about the horse that I love so much? After he dies, will he be lost to me forever? And what about the parts of creation that we don’t know personally: cicadas and sparrows and whales and raccoons? Is the resurrection for them? Well, if we take what Paul wrote to the Romans seriously, the resurrection is for every single bit of creation! That was the message of the scripture that I read just a few minutes ago (Romans 8:19-23). “The whole creation waits in eager anticipation for the children of God to be revealed,” he wrote. “Creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God!” Paul claims that the resurrection is for all creation, not just us human beings! Is that right? Did he make this up, or is this in the biblical tradition? Let’s take a look at some texts in the Old Testament and see what they say about it.

Let’s get into a time machine and travel all the way back to the Garden of Eden, back to the time when resurrection wasn’t necessary, because there was no sin in the world. Everything is beautiful, and the first humans live in harmony with the natural world around them. But as we watch them eat the forbidden fruit, everything changes. People will no longer live in harmony with nature, but will be forced to work the soil in order to get food. In fact, God curses the ground itself because of their behavior. “Cursed is the ground because of you,” God says. “It will produce thorns and thistles…” (You can look it up if you don’t believe me. It’s in Genesis 3:17-18.) The earth itself bears the consequences of our misdeeds. The original harmony that we enjoyed with creation was lost, and we have considered it our enemy ever since.

The earth continued to be an active character in the biblical drama, although we frequently overlook it. Let’s adjust our time machine so that we visit Mt. Sinai and witness God giving Moses the law. Most of that law concerns the way that people treat one another, but right in the middle of it is a commandment to give the land a Sabbath! “When you enter the land that I am giving you,” God says, “the land shall observe a Sabbath for the Lord. In the seventh year, there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land.” (Leviticus 25:2, 4) The Sabbath isn’t just for human beings, the land needs to rest, just like we do! And if we turn our time machine so that it takes us to the time of the prophets, we’ll hear Isaiah complaining that our sins have messed up the natural world (24:4-6): “The earth dries up and withers; the world languishes and withers; the heavens languish together with the earth. The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants, for they have transgressed laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt…" What we do affects the earth; and vice versa. We are tied to the earth from which we came more intimately than a mother is tied to her child.

Now, let’s go to visit Jesus in our time machine and listen as he talks to his followers (Matthew 10:29). “Not one [sparrow] will fall to the ground apart from our Father,” he says. All creation is dear to God’s heart! But the clincher, for me at least, is what he says in John 3:16. We all know that verse. “God so loved the world that he gave his only son…” What you probably don’t know about is the Greek word that is translated “world.” It’s not a word that means “the ground” or “the dirt.” It’s not a word that means “all the people” either. Those are completely different words. No, the word used here is “kosmos.” That word means the whole universe, everything that is! God so loved the whole universe that he gave his only son! It’s not just about us, folks; it’s about all creation! Finally, if we visit the very end of time in our time machine and see what John the visionary saw and wrote about in the book of Revelation, we see the ultimate resurrection: a new heavens and a new earth. Everything that is – you, me, dogs, horses, honeybees, sea turtles, robins, giraffes, hippos, tulips, maple trees, and grass – everything will be resurrected and made new through the grace of Jesus Christ!

That doesn’t mean, though, that we should sit by and wait for God to fix creation any more than we should sit back and wait for God to fix the economic and social messes that we’ve made. God calls us to change systems that keep generation after generation in poverty, withhold opportunities from entire ethnic groups, and assist a few in hoarding wealth while millions of others go hungry. We know that it is our responsibility to try to change those situations! And it is also up to us to be responsible stewards of the earth while we wait for the resurrection that is promised to all those whom God loves. Fortunately, more and more people are recognizing that we are called to “tend and keep” the earth just as Adam was called to “tend and keep” the Garden of Eden. It is very easy to find people who are ready to pronounce doomsday because of the climate change that is taking place all around us. But it’s also becoming easier and easier to find stories about people all over the world who are taking steps to change our old habits of misusing the earth and our fellow creatures.

Let me give you just one example. Every day I log into a website called “Free the Ocean” and I try to answer a trivia question. With every question that I answer, whether or not I get it right, funds are generated to help groups who remove plastic from the ocean. One of those groups is “Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii.” They not only remove tons of plastic from coastlines, they coordinate educational programs and public awareness campaigns. Another is “Ocean Cleanup,” a group based in the Netherlands that not only removes plastic from the ocean, but also intercepts plastic from polluted rivers before it has a chance to even reach the ocean! The plastic that is removed is recycled into new products. And that’s just one example. I could tell you about the International Rhino Foundation that collaborates with hundreds of organizations to eliminate the threat to Black Rhinos in Zimbabwe and stabilize its population. They are succeeding, too. Zoos worldwide cooperate to breed endangered species and, where possible, release them back into the wild. And I haven’t even touched on the thousands of local groups who protect, maintain, and enlarge habitats for native species of plants and the animals that depend on them! Whether we consider manatees in Florida, Siberian Tigers in Russia, or Laysan Albatrosses on Guadalupe Island in Mexico, local groups who love God’s creation are working on behalf of their welfare.

The notion of resurrection is difficult for anyone to grasp. I admit that I have difficulty with it myself. But I have a vision of what a resurrected creation might look like. Isaiah says that the wolf won’t be a threat to the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion will live together in peace. My vision looks like that, but it’s even grander than what Isaiah had in mind. In the resurrected world that I imagine, everyone – even the animals – have a safe place to live, and enough to eat. In my vision, huge flocks of passenger pigeons fly overhead, darkening the sky with their numbers, just as they did before we humans hunted them to extinction. Swarms of healthy honeybees pollinate an abundance of flowers, because the pesticides that are killing them now no longer exist. Giraffes, rhinos, hippos, and elephants are plentiful and safe from poachers. The rain forest with its diversity of plants and animals is thriving. The ocean is once again the cradle of life; and coral reefs shelter an abundance of fish and crustaceans. And all animals live free; none are confined or abused for human benefit. Trees once again grow to great ages without being harvested for wood for fuel or construction. Plastic pollution is a thing of the past. All landscapes are beautiful, because strip mining no longer exists. In the resurrected creation, we no longer take advantage of nature; we love it. Is it possible that when God told us to “love our neighbor as ourselves,” God meant the natural world, too? I think that he did. As that great theologian the Lorax once said, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” On this Sunday after Earth Day, I invite you to embrace the earth as your neighbor, to work for her good, and to anticipate the resurrection that Jesus offers to not only us humans, but to all creation. Thanks be to God that he does!

March Madness

 Easter is a tough holiday to preach, because it is like no other in the Christian year. We understand Christmas. We get babies, refugees, and bloodthirsty tyrants. We get Epiphany, when even people from foreign lands recognize Jesus as the savior. But Easter? We have no touchstone with resurrection! My Easter sermon this year compares Easter to -- of all things -- the yearly basketball tournament that is nicknamed "March Madness." Before that tournament begins, many of us try to pick the winners. Who would have thought that a nobody rabbi from Galilee would defeat the might of the Roman empire and the religious establishment of the Pharisees? You can read my sermon to find out more about the comparison, and why I think that it is spot on!

It’s time again for March Madness. For those of you who may not care about sports, March Madness is the yearly NCAA Division I college basketball tournament. Every year in mid-March, the best 68 teams in college basketball are chosen, and then they set off to decide who will be this year’s best team. Let me explain very briefly how that works. Each team is paired up with another one. If you lose, you’re out. If you win, you go on to the next round. Finally, there are only two teams left, and they contend for the championship. March Madness is 67 basketball games played over a time period of about three weeks. If you don’t care for basketball, you can watch Netflix movies; but if you DO like college basketball, it’s the highlight of the sports year! And the very best part isn’t even watching the games: it’s filling out your bracket. The bracket, for those of you who don’t know, is the match-up between teams, all 68 of them. Filling your bracket is deciding who will win each of the 67 games before anyone has even begun to play. You decide who will win, and who will be eliminated; and you do that for every single game, including the national championship game. You then get points for each winning team that you picked correctly. Countless brackets are completed prior to the beginning of the tournament! This year, on ESPN alone, over 15 million brackets were submitted. Worried that you don’t know who to choose? Then you can watch experts discuss “bracketology” right up to the first game of the tournament! If your bracket does well, you celebrate; and if you don’t do well, you console yourself by saying, “Just wait until next year!”

Why is March Madness so popular? Why do people fill out brackets like their life depended on it? Why, because we like to pick winners, of course; and we all think that we can predict who is going to win and who is going to lose. It sounds easy enough. After all, each team in the tournament is ranked as to their probability of winning. The #1 ranked teams have a greater chance of winning than the #16 ranked teams; so why not just pick all the #1 teams? Well, because a high ranking doesn’t guarantee a win! A team from a small, unrecognized school might just play knock off one of the big guys! That happened a couple of years ago when tiny University of Maryland Baltimore Campus upended the mighty University of Virginia in the first round of the tournament. Picking a winner isn’t as obvious as going with a team that has a big budget and a lot of recognition. Winners come out of nowhere and defy our expectations.

The original March Madness began over 2,000 years ago in Israel; and it had nothing to do with basketball. It was an unlikely conflict between the Roman Empire, the Jewish Pharisees, the Jerusalem Temple priests, and an unknown rabbi from Galilee named Jesus of Nazareth. The Roman Empire held all the cards. They had a standing army of trained soldiers, control of the money, and a thirst to keep it that way. The Jewish Pharisees had quite a bit of power, too. They controlled the religious behavior of the people in Israel, and together with the Temple priests, they kept the Roman Empire happy by keeping the people quiet. Jesus of Nazareth had no power at all. At least, he had no political power. He had no soldiers, no money, and no desire to sit on an earthly throne. He was a threat, though, because people liked him; and why not? He didn’t demand their money by taxing them or threaten them with punishment if they didn’t behave in a certain way. Instead, he loved them – all of them – and he didn’t even ignore poor people. As a matter of fact, he told the poor that God loved them most of all. He healed anyone who asked, and he taught that love was the most important force in the universe. When too many people started to like this rabbi Jesus because of all the good things that he did, the Romans, the Pharisees, and the Temple priests decided that he needed to be silenced.

Jesus began the competition when he rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Game on! Jesus versus the Romans, the Pharisees, and the priests. Who would win in YOUR bracket? Surely it would be the Romans. They were ranked #1 in all the areas that counted! They had the best generals, the most fighting men, the biggest bankroll. They were also bloodthirsty, not above using poison, beheading, or crucifixion to take out their enemies. If the Romans chose to sit out the first game, then surely the Temple priests would come out on top. They controlled worship in the Temple through the sacrifices that the people believed were necessary to please God. If you control the Temple, you control God’s favor. That should have been a slam-dunk. In the first match-up, though, Jesus came out on top. He stormed into the Temple courts and cleaned them out. He got rid of all the moneychangers and the vendors who were selling sacrificial animals at a huge mark-up, and he invited all the people in. He said that the Temple was God’s house, not a flea market, and that everyone should be able to worship there. Jesus 1, Temple priests 0.

That’s when the Pharisees decided that they had better join forces with the Romans. The Romans were already suspicious of this Jesus who had caused a demonstration by riding into Jerusalem at the very same time that Pontius Pilate did. Oh, Jesus rode a donkey, and his followers were ordinary nobodies; but it was a direct challenge to the authority of Rome. When the Pharisees came to them to ask for their help, they decided that it would be smart to comply. Now the game has changed: it’s Jesus versus Rome AND the Pharisees. Jesus was bound to lose that round. And it certainly looked as though he had. You all know what happened. Jesus was arrested on a Thursday night, tried on a trumped-up charge by the high court of the Pharisees, convicted by Pontius Pilate on Friday, and crucified on a Roman cross. Tournament over, with the Pharisees and Rome coming out on top.

But… the Pharisees weren’t so sure that their victory was certain. They sealed the stone that closed Jesus’ tomb, and asked the Romans to post a guard just in case the disciples tried any funny business. Funny business was the last thing on the minds of the disciples. They were in hiding, mourning Jesus’ death and afraid for their own lives. No, the disciples didn’t do anything. But God did. Early on Easter morning, God – who is, after all, the ultimate referee – declared that the game was over and that Jesus had won! The great stone covering the tomb, the seal on that stone, the Roman guards at the tomb, and even death itself didn’t make a bit of difference! God’s own angel rolled away the stone from the mouth of the tomb and announced to the startled women that Jesus had been raised from the dead. And sure enough, Jesus himself met them in what could only be described as a victory celebration!

That original March Madness is still going on. In fact, it has expanded considerably! It now begins on Ash Wednesday, as we face the fact that we are all in a conflict with death. “From dust we came,” we affirm, “and to dust we will return.” And then, over a span of forty days, we examine our lives and recognize all the conflicts that we fight with death’s agents. We contend with greed, with illness, with suffering, with violence, with hatred, and with despair. We train for the day when we will gain the victory! Of course, we’re not playing basketball. Our March Madness is the madness claiming that humility is stronger that hatred; that violence is doomed to failure; and that love will ultimately prevail. Many people say that our faith IS madness! What sane person would believe that love is stronger than hatred, that crucifixion would lead to life, or that death is not the end? Long ago, St. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth: “The message of the cross is foolishness – madness – to those who are perishing; but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God.” (I Corinthians 1:18) On Easter morning, the stone is rolled away, and Rome, the Pharisees, the Temple priests, and even Death realize that they have lost the game. A rabbi from Galilee has come out of nowhere and won the game for all of us! He has upset all the powers that thought they were invincible! What can we do but adore the God whose power is love and whose trophy is new life? On this Easter day, as we strive to understand the resurrection – as some of us even struggle to believe it – let us praise the God whose power is in humility, and whose victory is in love! Thanks be to God that the end of our March Madness is a victory celebration, not on a basketball court, but at an empty tomb!